1 . If you’ve ever emerged from the shower or returned from your walk with a clever idea or a solution to a problem you had been struggling with, it may not be a surprise. Rather than constantly concentrating on a problem, research from the last 15 years suggests that people may be more likely to have creative breakthroughs when they’re doing a habitual task that doesn’t require much thought.

“People always get surprised when they realize they get interesting, novel ideas at unexpected times,” says Kalina Christoff, a scientist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, “because our culture tells us that we should do it through hard work.”

Now researchers begin to understand why these clever thoughts occur during more passive activities and what’s happening in the brain. They have found that the key is a series of brain activities—within what’s called the default mode (DM) network—that occur while an individual is resting or performing habitual tasks that don’t require much attention.

“Simply put, it is a state that your brain returns to when you’re relaxed,” explains Christoff. “By contrast, when you’re working on a demanding task, the brain’s executive control (EC) systems keep your thinking focused, analytical, and logical.”

Researchers find that the DM network is also involved in the early stages of idea generation, drawing from past experiences and knowledge about the world. When your mind wanders, you’re allowing thoughts to playfully cross your mind, which helps you combine information and ideas in new ways and something clicks.

“A cautionary note: While the DM network plays a key role in the creative process, it is the EC systems that help you to evaluate and apply the creative ideas effectively to your problems in the real world,” Christoff says. “So it’s unwise to place blind faith in the discovery that creative ideas can be generated in the shower or during any other kinds of mind wandering. Instead, you have to do the work to set the groundwork for creative ideas to emerge in the first place.”

2 . Central Park

Explore Central Park, one of the largest city parks in the world and one of the most famous symbols of New York. Let’s have a look at its main sights.

Central Park is New York’s largest city park and one of the biggest in the world, with an area of 843 acres (about 3.4km²). This park is home to man-made lakes, waterfalls, grass and wooded areas. You will also find the Central Park Zoo, among other attractions in this greenspace of New York.

Besides being the city’s primary green lungs, Central Park is also a favorite spot for many New Yorkers. It is perfect for sunbathing, going for walks, or doing any outdoor sports. Something that we found curious is seeing so many people running with their babies in prams (婴儿车).

To get to know some of the wildest parts of Central Park we suggest walking. However, to get a general feel for the whole park, the best thing to do is hire a bicycle and enjoy the scenery.

If you decide to hire a bike, you will find lots of bike rental stores around Central Park that are not very expensive.

From 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekends.

From 6 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. on weekdays.

Entry to the Park is free. But if you visit some parts like Central Park Zoo, you need to buy a ticket.

Subway: Line 5, 6, 7, A, B, C and D．

Bus: Line M1, M2, M3, M4 and M10.

Metropolitan Museum of Art (447 m)

Guggenheim Museum (564 m)

American Museum of Natural History (688 m)

Whitney Museum of American Art (1 km)

The Frick Collection (1.3 km)

4 . I walked to Mrs. Windsor’s house and waited outside. She was working with another student, and I was not supposed to________them by ringing the bell. I stood against the wall and________what I’d rather be doing. I had been tutored enough to read, understand, and even write some musical compositions, but I just didn’t have a________for it. Mrs. Windsor had offered to give me the lessons________, so I felt it my duty to try.

The door opened and Wendy Barton came out. I walked in, sat down on the piano bench and began to________my sheet music. Today Mrs. Windsor________her niece Pasha to teach me.

With a smile, Pasha sat beside me on the piano bench, opened my sheet music to the beginning page and asked me to play. I________my fingers on the keys. Then I frowned and concentrated to make the notes on the page________the finger movements. I had to admit I was a rather________pianist.

After about a page or two, Pasha gently put her hand on top of mine as it to________my fingers. There was a long pause. “What are you hearing in the music?” I looked at her rather________and admitted I didn’t know what she meant. “Like a________. Here, let me try and you listen,” Pasha advised.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting her fingers________lightly over the keys. Then, she began to play. “See, it begins here beside some kind of river. Hear the water flowing beside you?” Her fingers ________and fell gently on the keys. “Now a princess appears and she’s picking flowers from the water’s________.”A happy piece of music filled the air in time to Pasha’s dancing fingers.

6 . The Forbidden City, widely regarded as one of the most popular destinations at home and abroad, houses amazing Chinese cultural and historical relics, for which the Forbidden City is always well-known. But Masters in the Forbidden City does not just focus on the stories of the past.

Instead, the documentary movie, which came out in Chinese cinemas on Dec. 16, focuses on ordinary people—the restorers of relics and antiquities.

The stories are told at a slow and relaxed pace, reflecting the restorers’ work. Restoration of cultural relics and antiques can be time-consuming, and sometimes boring. Yet these restorers’ patience and peace of mind are especially precious in a society where everything is changing so fast.

“If you choose this job, you have to put up with hours of work sitting on a chair. You need to be quiet and get used to being quiet,” says Wang Jin, an ancient clock repair expert.

A touching part of the documentary is the spirit of craftsmanship (工艺)in the restorers. “Years of humdrum work requires not only skill, but also faith and spirit,” China Daily commented, “Looking for preciseness and perfection, devoting yourself to work, patience, endurance, loneliness... All these qualities come from the craftsman spirit.”

But unlike the popular idea of serious experts who sit around being serious, the documentary shows off the enthusiasm of the restorers. They play their guitars and make jokes about each other after a long day of restoration work.

One scene that has been very popular with Internet users features a young female restorer riding a bicycle through the empty Forbidden City on a Monday. While she is doing this, a narrator says, “The last person to do this was Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty.”

Masters in the Forbidden City has proved wrong many people’s ideas about antique restorers, allowing them to realize that they are not old, dull professors, but people in their 40s, 30s and even 20s who can be quite pleasing to the eye.

10 . People trained to detect lies often rely on multiple signs, such as eye contact, length of responses and the details in what people say, but studies have shown that assessing a wide range of behavioral information can make it harder to decide if someone is lying. Bruno Verschuere at the University of Amsterdam and his colleagues wondered whether solely focusing on the detail of statements could provide more consistent results.

To test this idea, researchers asked 44 students to go for a walk or steal from a mock(模仿的)crime. Students were instructed to lie if they committed the fake theft.

Next, the researchers recruited 171 people to watch six truthful and six deceptive(欺骗的) interviews from these recordings, ranking interviewees’ eye contact and detail level. The results revealed that both truth-tellers and liars averted (转移) their gaze a similar amount, but truthful statements were substantially more detailed than deceptive ones, suggesting the latter is a more useful way to tell that someone is lying.

The researchers then asked 405 people to judge the true nature of six truthful and six deceptive statements randomly chosen from the interviews. Around half of the participants used multiple cues to identify liars. The remaining participants solely ranked the level of detail in answers on a scale of 1 to 10, with l a 6 or above counting as truthful. Those using multiple cues distinguished lies from the truth 59% of the time, while those relying solely on detail achieved 66%.

“Our take is that using just one cue can provide a simpler way to judge lies from the truth,” says Verschuere. Nevertheless, in the real world, you would probably need to confirm the accuracy of statements through extra further investigations or follow-up questions, he says.